Anti Reflective Glass

Anti-Reflective Finish

Anti-Reflective Glass is a specialised glass product that has been treated to reduce the amount of surface reflection seen from the face of the glass.

Anti-Reflective coatings produce a much clearer glass finish with residual reflectance reduced to as little as 1%.

Made from extra clear, low iron Glass, anti-reflective glass is produced by dipping low iron glass in different solutions of metal oxides, creating a coating on all faces of the glass that actually prevents visual reflectance.

These anti-reflective coatings produce a glass unit that is almost invisible, with no colouration or tint to the glass with little visual reflectance.

Invisible Glass Structures

Due to their unobtrusive visual appearance anti-reflective glass units are especially suited to listed buildings, historical buildings or sensitive conservation areas where the addition of new building elements need to have as little impact on the appearance of the building as possible.

Anti-Reflective Glass is also used in architectural glazing applications where full transparency through the glass is paramount, such as shop fronts or car showrooms. Even when toughened and used in an insulated glass unit anti-reflective glass can achieve a light reflectance of only 3% ensuring that any passers-by see the products inside rather than their own reflection.

The anti-reflective coatings are extremely durable to create an easy to clean and maintain glass finish suitable for high traffic areas.

Glass Performance

Anti-reflective glass can be used within a double or triple glazed unit but the clearest finish is possible with single glazing.

A layer of monolithic toughened glass with anti-reflective coatings can achieve a surface reflectance of 1% and a light transmission of 98%, compared to 8% luminous reflectance and 90% light transmission from a simple low-iron piece of glass.

When combining anti-reflective glass into an insulating glass unit, with a Ug value of 1.1 W/m2K, you can achieve a surface reflection of 3% and a light transmission of 85%.

Glass Specification

Anti-reflective glass is made from low iron glass and is available in toughened safety glass units of up to 3.77m x 1.77m.

This anti-reflective finish is able to be applied to toughened glass units of 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12mm thick.

We can then laminate anti-reflective glass for structural glass assemblies and create double and triple glazing units with high levels of thermal performance and good solar values.